1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my
pasture! says Yahweh. 2 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel,
against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock,
and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you
the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. 3 I will gather the remnant of my
flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them
again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will
set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh. 5 Behold, the
days come, says Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he
shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel
shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: Yahweh
our righteousness. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that
they shall no more say, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up
and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and
from all the countries where I had driven them. They shall dwell in their own
land. 9 Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my
bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome,
because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words. 10 For the land is full
of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the
wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right;
11 for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found
their wickedness, says Yahweh. 12 Therefore their way shall be to them as
slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein;
for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says
Yahweh. 13 I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied
by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 In the prophets of
Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk
in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none does
return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and
the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts
concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make
them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is
ungodliness gone forth into all the land. 16 Thus says Yahweh of Hosts,
Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you
vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of
Yahweh. 17 They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said,
You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of
his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you. 18 For who has stood in
the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has
marked my word, and heard it? 19 Behold, the tempest of Yahweh, even
his wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst on the
head of the wicked. 20 The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has
executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter
days you shall understand it perfectly. 21 I sent not these prophets,
yet they ran: I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they
had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and
had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any
hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don’t
I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh. 25 I have heard what the prophets
have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have
dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who
prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 27 who
think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell
every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my
word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says
Yahweh. 29 Isn’t my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that
breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the
prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues,
and say, He says. 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,
says Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and
by their vain boasting: yet I didn’t send them, nor commanded them; neither
do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh. 33 When this people, or
the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of
Yahweh? then shall you tell them, What burden! I will cast you off, says
Yahweh. 34 As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall
say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house.
35 Thus shall you say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his
brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has Yahweh spoken? 36 The
burden of Yahweh shall you mention no more: for every man’s own word
shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God,
of Yahweh of Hosts our God. 37 Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has
Yahweh answered you? and, What has Yahweh spoken? 38 But if you say,
The burden of Yahweh; therefore thus says Yahweh: Because you say this
word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall
not say, The burden of Yahweh; 39 therefore, behold, I will utterly forget
you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your
fathers, away from my presence: 40 and I will bring an everlasting
reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
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